Baylor professors of the year represent business, English and religion

Each year, Baylor honors three professors with major awards based on slightly varying criteria.

The senior class annually votes to determine the Collins Outstanding Professor Award. For the seventh time in the last 10 years, the Collins Award winner is also a Baylor graduate; this year’s recipient is Tim Thomasson, BBA ’91, MBA ’92, a professor of accounting and business law in the Hankamer School of Business. Thomasson spent 17 years in the field before coming back to Baylor in 2006.

Dr. Greg Garrett, a Baylor English professor in the College of Arts & Sciences since 1989, was named the 2013 Baylor Centennial Professor. Funded by the Centennial Class of 1945, each year the award provides financial support to aide one professor with a specific project. Garrett, a prolific writer, will use the award to further work on his next book, Entertaining Judgment: The Afterlife in Literature and Culture, which will examine our culture’s views of life after death over the centuries.

Another longtime Baylor professor, Dr. William Bellinger Jr., is the 2013 Cornelia Marschall Smith Professor of the Year. The award honors a professor who “makes a superlative contribution to the learning environment at Baylor,” based on teaching, research and service. Bellinger has taught religion at Baylor since 1984 and served as department chair since 2006. Known for his sense of humor and robust laugh, Bellinger’s academic focus is on the worship texts of the Old Testament.

Sic ’em, Baylor professors!